Chapter 5 - Cornered Rats
The industrial outskirts of Tepito were draped in thick fog and rain when Alejandro’s fleet of black SUVs pulled into the narrow alleyway behind an abandoned textile factory.
Ramiro stepped out first, followed by four heavily armed private security guards. Alejandro stepped down into the damp night air, his face an emotionless mask of cold fury.
Inside the dimly lit warehouse, Mateo Estrada was waiting, sitting on a rusted metal crate, clutching a heavy leather briefcase. He was a thin, nervous man with sunken eyes and a twitching jaw.
"Where’s Regina?" Mateo called out, his voice echoing in the hollow space as he saw Alejandro’s towering figure emerge from the darkness. "Who the hell are you?"
"I am Alejandro Arriaga," Alejandro said, his voice echoing like thunder in the empty building. "The father of the boy you’ve been poisoning."
Mateo’s eyes widened in horror. He immediately reached for a hand gun concealed inside his jacket, but before his fingers could touch the grip, Ramiro fired a single, silenced shot that struck the wall an inch from Mateo’s head. Concrete dust rained down on the chemist as he screamed and fell off the crate, dropping his briefcase.
"Don't shoot! Don't shoot!" Mateo shrieked, crawling backward until his back hit a rusty steel beam. "I just sell the compounds! I don't know what people use them for!"
"Liar," Alejandro walked up to him, grabbing the man by his collar and hauling him to his feet with terrifying strength. "I read the text messages. You knew it was for a ten-year-old child. You designed the toxin specifically to bypass standard medical blood panels."
"She paid me! She paid me millions!" Mateo babbled, tears streaming down his dirt-streaked face. "She said the kid was standing between her and a billion-peso fortune! She promised me a cut of the insurance payout after he died in the clinic!"
"Where are your journals? Where are the ledgers showing every transaction, every ingredient, and every recorded conversation with her?" Alejandro demanded.
"In... in the safe! Under the floorboards in the back office!" Mateo stammered, pointing a trembling finger toward a dilapidated office room. "Take it! Take everything! Just don't kill me!"
Ramiro went into the office and returned minutes later carrying a metal box filled with hard drives, hand-written chemical formulas, and recorded phone calls that Mateo had secretly saved as insurance against Regina.
Alejandro opened the ledger. Page after page detailed the exact dates, times, and dosages of the neurotoxin given to his son over the past three months. It was an undeniable, rock-solid paper trail of attempted murder.
"Call the Federal Police," Alejandro ordered Ramiro. "Hand this scum over to the prosecutor general along with every piece of evidence in this box. I want him in a maximum-security prison before dawn."
"And what about Regina, sir?" Ramiro asked.
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Alejandro looked down at the terrified chemist, then back at the ledger in his hands.
"Regina thinks she is smart," Alejandro said softly. "She thinks her beauty and her connections will save her. It's time to show her what happens when you touch an Arriaga."
